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Unlike silver, gold does not tarnish, but it can get dull after sitting in your jewelry box for a long time. For serious grime, you should take your gold to a jewelry cleaning professional, but for minor dirt you can clean your pieces at home. The most important thing to remember when cleaning gold is that you must be gentle, as you can easily scratch the soft metal.
Identifying a watch case or testing it to see if it is 14-karat, or some other gold karat content, requires some simple instructions and basic inexpensive acid testing kits. Basic kits and tools are available online at a variety of auction sites and website stores. Although most antique gold watches and jewelry are stamped with a hallmark number and symbol, not all of them are so identified. So knowing how and where to look for the hallmark symbols and numbers is an important part of identifying 14kt gold watch cases, watches, and jewelry.
Tiffany & Co.'s reputation for quality and its upper-class clientele and media cachet puts it in an enviable position. Some company analysts in the past have even considered it recession proof. This exposure, along with the brand's high-end and high-quality merchandise, gives Tiffany enough clout to stay away from sales or discounts. However, some price breaks can be had if you know how to find them.
Tiffany & Co. has created jewelry for over 170 years. In the late 1800s, the company began building fine timepieces. Today, Tiffany & Co. produces watches for men and women that can be purchased through one of the Tiffany flagship stores or other retail outlets. Because the watches are often counterfeited, smart shoppers know to look for certain characteristics that identify a genuine Tiffany watch.
The value of antique or vintage watches is determined by several factors: the maker, condition and the type of materials. Antique pocket and wristwatches generally do not command high prices. But an 18k gold watch is far more valuable than any other timepiece. A standard practice among some jewelers is to automatically add $750 to the value of a watch with an 18k case.
Titanium watches have a distinct advantage over stainless steel, platinum and gold-filled timepieces. Titanium is a light-weight metal that is highly resistant to corrosion, making it a suitable metal for outdoor, sports-style use. Perhaps the most common use of titanium in timepieces is for dive watches, which are not affected in extended use in saltwater or in extreme weather conditions.
Gold-plated watches won't remain beautiful as long as solid-gold pieces, but you can still lengthen the life of your watch by keeping it clean. Cleaning watches is especially important, as sweat and oils from your wrist can dull the color or even wear down the gold-plating over time. However, you must be extra careful when cleaning gold-plating, or you will expose the underlying metal. Use only gentle cleaners and soft materials, and clean carefully and gently. Do not scrub.
